


War Stories

by Anonymous



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst, First Time, M/M, Multi, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-26
Updated: 2020-07-26
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:28:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,025
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25522864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A routine mission to an old rebel outpost leads to something new.
Relationships: Poe Dameron/Luke Skywalker/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2
Collections: Anonymous, Rare Male Slash Exchange 2020





	War Stories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Fairleigh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Fairleigh/gifts).



Poe set down the ship in a whirl of sand. "All out that's getting out," he called over his shoulder into the back, where Luke and Ben were strapped into their seats.

The uncle and nephew climbed down to the sand, and Ben looked around. "There used to be a rebel base here, Uncle?"

"Back during the war," Luke reminisced. "Sometimes we still come out this way to check on the old monitoring equipment and see if anything needs to be repaired or should be salvaged. I thought it would be a good experience for you."

Poe brought up the rear, trotting along in silent appreciation. He still couldn't get over a touch of hero worship for the big war hero Luke Skywalker. It only made him more fascinated that Luke seemed like such a normal guy generally. He didn't hesitate to get with the ordinary rank and file pilots, and he had accepted Poe's flying services for the mission with no qualifications.

They went into the old rebel base, which was falling apart with the damage from the passing of the many years since it had been an active monitoring station during the war. Sand blew through the cracks with every gust of wind, moaning and creaking in the old metal panels above their heads.

"Are we staying long?" Ben asked.

"Not too long. I thought we'd check the equipment and then camp here for the night," Luke said.

"Do we have to? There's a perfectly good ship right there ..."

"I bet Poe would want to," Luke said, and smiled back at him. Poe found himself blushing. It wasn't just the war hero Luke Skywalker noticing him, it was the war hero Luke Skywalker looking at him in a way that made him think Luke found him attractive.

Could something happen on this mission? Was there a reason Luke had picked him? He had never dared to hope for it, but now he found himself picking up his steps, excited.

~~~~

They made a fire just down the hill from the old monitoring station. The firelight flickered in the desert night, reflecting off the landing gear of Poe's ship.

Luke had given Ben the job of making dinner for them, saying it would be good for the boy's survival skills. Ben turned out to be a passably good camp cook. They passed around plates of food.

"We used to camp like this during the war," Luke said. "Except this time it's not like we have to look over our shoulder for the Empire to find us at any moment."

"It must have been so exciting, though, back in those days," Ben said, starry-eyed.

Luke laughed. "Hardly! Scary and terrifying was more like it." His face grew pensive, dark even. "It was a hard time. So many people died .... so many friends of mine."

Poe didn't know what to say. He could tell how the undercurrents in the night had changed. The wind felt colder now. He, too, was thinking of people he'd lost, and all the ways the war had wrought damage on the galaxy.

It was a place like this, he thought. There was no way you could be here without your thoughts drifting back to that dark and terrible time. It hung over them all like a shadow of the hell they had gone through.

Except for Ben, who was looking at them like he wasn't quite sure what to think. Luke mustered up a smile for his nephew. "No more war stories tonight. Now go call your mother and say good night."

Ben went up to the ship, and Poe said, "Are you really planning on having us sleep down here?"

"Why? Worried?" Luke made a casual movement of a hand; the ship rocked on the sand. "Hey!" came down Ben's call from above.

"See, you have a Jedi master and an apprentice with you. What's to worry about?" Luke said.

"It's not that I was worried," Poe said. "It's more comfortable on the ship, that's all."

Luke rolled out a bed roll on the sand. "It can be comfortable here too," he said, and patted it.

That really _was_ what he wanted. Poe went and sat next to him, nervous but eager.

Ben came back just then, dropping down the steps from the ship. "Mom says—" He stopped then. "What's happening down here?"

"Come join us," Luke said. He had stretched out on the bed roll.

Ben came, a little nervous, and sat down shyly. "What is all of this about?"

"What it's about is that it's just the three of us," Luke said. "And if you two want it too, no one is ever going to know except for us. We can do whatever we want here. And sometimes, thinking about the tragedy of the past makes you want to affirm the life we still have, for the sake of the future."

"But I thought Jedi didn't do this," Poe said cautiously.

"It's a new world now," Luke said, his voice quietly wistful. "A new way of being Jedi. And like I said ... no one will know. Sometimes you have to indulge so that you can find your way back to the truth."

Ben and Poe looked at each other, and then as one they climbed eagerly onto him. Ben kissed him, then Poe did, and then the two of them kissed each other. And then there was nothing but quiet movement beside the fire and the whispering shift of sands.

~~~~~

Poe woke up sticky and covered with sand and twined together with Ben. He raised his head and saw Luke come back from behind the ship.

"I wondered where you'd gone."

"Call of nature," Luke said. He smiled and stretched, looking up to the sky. He said nothing more, and Poe felt a wistfulness steal over him. 

As Luke had said, they need never speak of this. Poe had a feeling that it would probably never happen again. It was a thing that could only have happened here, borne of their mingled nostalgia and sorrow for past times, grief for friends lost, and war stories told in the dark.


End file.
